I discovered the almost unique fossil beds (I think there's another like it in China) in Clarkia while reading Stephen J. Gould's Dinosaur in a Haystack., pp 403-410, in his essay "Magnolias from Moscow [Idaho]. The fossil bed contains material from an ancient forest that was almost instantaneously covered with ash millions of years ago from a nearby volcano. It sealed much of vegetation in rock that became fossilized. As a result, if one is working on the rock, it is possible to find the imprint of fossilized leaves, and ... sometimes the actual leaf! In the the latter case, the leaf begins to deteriorate quickly from oxygen in our atmosphere. For an instant you see it as it was, in color, what it looked like millions of years ago. That intrigued me.
It turns out that a good bit of the fossil bed is on private land, and the owner has a small museum. You can dig in the land for a small fee, $5 (?), and take out as much material as you wish (within reason, I suppose). I opened a number of rocks but found no fresh material. However, I have a block of material in my garage about 1/5th of a cubic foot waiting for me to probe. They supply hammers, spatulas and such. I do not presently have their phone number, but you might call, try Google, to get some details before you visit them. The owner has a small area next door that features small gas powered vehicles to ramble around a track.
When I was in Moscow, Idaho, I believe, I stopped at the University there, and talked to a palentologist about how to preserve any fresh specimens if I were fortunate enough to find them. I've forgotten his advice, but don't recall actually getting the materials to use anyway. I don't recall either the site or the university having photographs of specimens of the unblemished material; however, I think the museum might have had some, or, at least, experienced seeing the fresh specimens briefly.
I think the two b/w photos below are from the private museum or university (more likely the university).
